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Monday, September 30, 2013

I wanted to drop in and update you on some new things and what I have in the works (if I stay on track that is).

With Envy Parties

1)By the end of the week I should be offering PRINTED invitations. Yippee!!! I have wanted to do this for a while but was just trying to figure out the best way.

2)Hopefully by the end of October if not mid October I will be offering printed water bottle labels.That will complete the PRINTED offerings in the shop.

3)Working on updating my listings to include PRINTING as a option versus having to purchase a separate listing.

4)Working on adding coordinate items to match the current invitations I have. I am starting with my most popular invitations or themes first. If there is a current theme you want me to work on let me know!

5)Adding a few other items available for full customization

With Envy Paper

1)Still working on adding inventory.

2)Adding Fall and Holiday items

3)Adding banners and journal tags to the shop

4)Working on offering coordinating items for my clipart packs (I don't think I will do it for all but will try for most)

With Envy Babies

1)Increasing inventory

2)Adding more sibling designs

3)Adding more holiday shirt designs

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For all the shops as a whole I am working on getting my own site up and running. My goal is by the beginning of 2014 to have picked a webhost and actually make the site fully available. I have a host picked out but I don't hav a ton of time to work on it right now. Plus I have a few questions that I need to get answered before I hit the "purchase" button. But I am excited to possible have all my sites in one. But I will still be on Etsy for a long time!! I like Etsy and I know it will be the bulk of y business but I like the idea of having a site of my own too.

Also side note...I am sooo glad that I made the decision to branch out from my party shop and offer clipart as well. Not only do I have a ton of fun creating items but this past month my clipart shop has really help fill in the gap after a less profitable month for my party shop so in the end I still stayed on target revenue wise.

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Ok that's it for updates but make sure you check back tomorrow...a new month means a NEW COLOR CHALLENGE (aka cool new products and FREEBIES)!!!

The last Friday of each month I will preview the freebies for With Envy Paper & With Envy Babies.

Here is the fine print before the preview :)

This
is a monthly freebie, if you happen to purchase from me more than once
in a month I will only send the freebie in the first purchase. Please
save the file to your computer as soon as you can. Once the month is
over that item will no longer be available as a freebie. Freebies are
bound by the same terms of use as all my other products. Please review
TOU included with the product or in the respective shop.

Ok on with the show!!!

I was inspired by this color palette from Design Seeds and wanted to create something girly but not to frilly...if that makes sense :) Free set includes 13
clipart images, measuring 6" at their tallest or widest points, 300 DPI,
PNG & JPG included.

I was on a roll with the flowers and created this iron-transfer design. It would be perfect for a shirt design for all ages or a bag design! The
design measures 5.2"x5.2". Mirror image also included.
PDF file. Print on iron-on paper, sticker paper or cardstock. Can be
used for shirt/onesie designs, bag designs or using the guidelines it
can be cut used as an 8"x10" art print.

And since I can't pick all of you as winners I am offering a coupon code for 25% off your order at all 3 stores. Use code GIVEAWAY at checkout. Not valid on custom orders (anything that is not a design already available in the shop). Code valid through 9/25/13 (Wednesday)10 PMPST.

Thank you guys again, I anticipate having giveaways for the major holidays (although I don't think I will be doing one for Thanksgiving). Not sure if they will all be blog giveaways, so make sure you check my FB page often as I generally post there first for any sales, new items or giveaways!

Monday, September 16, 2013

I'm back with a little update on my journey. There are not really any "uglies" like in my last post about my journey.

On the business front, I have so many things going one, its holiday time so I have a ton products I'm trying to get into all the shops, and it's slower going than I thought. My sales are not what I thought they would be. They aren't horrible they are steady but I was hoping for more of a boost now that the holidays are approaching.

Its hard because last year this time it was crazy at my then day job and I was not putting much into my shops so I can't really compare last year this time to this year. I know that January-Valentines day and then right before Easter through the middle of June are my busiest times but I am hoping with 3 months in a row of major holidays that I will be very busy. Fingers crossed!!

But despite that I can at least see that my sales for With Envy Paper are picking up month to month. With Envy Parties is my main shop, my main source of revenue, With Envy Babies is kind of in the background. I love it but I'm not expecting it to be the main revenue so I am slowly building inventory and I'm just content with whatever I bring in there. But I really enjoy creating scrapbook paper packs and clipart and I'm really hoping eventually to make With Envy Paper more of a contender with With Envy Parties. Baby steps :)

On the home front I am happy to report that I am starting to feel better about how I am doing as a mommy. I think this is in part due to my decision to "homeschool" my daughter this year. So I think I mentioned before that in order to leave my former job and make With Envy Studios my full time gig we had to pull my kids out of their daycare. My daughter starts kindergarten next fall (she missed the cut off by a month). Her daycare also had a preschool and private kindergarten. My kids have learned so much going there and I really didn't want my daughter to lose any of that this year being home. Plus I didn't want us just hanging out all day.

So I decided to homeschool her with a mix of prek & kindergarten curriculum. We are starting our 3rd week and I finally feel like we have a rhythm going. My days are pretty much focused on my kids and homeschool and then after 2:30 or 3 is playing and working depending on if the hubs is home or not. I only plan to do this for a year and then she will start kindergarten, but depending on how things go I might end up doing the same with my son.

My daughter loves school and its nice to be this hands on in her learning. I feel like I'm learning more about my kids this way and myself (this is definitely teaching me patience). I also think they are seeing that mommy doesn't spend all day on the computer, which makes me feel better. Unfortunately the trade off is I continue to stay up way to late and wake up way to early to get work in. But despite that I don't feel like I'm wasting any of time like I did when I had my day job.

Monday, September 9, 2013

I haven't managed to be able to pull together a meaningful post about my progress on the self-employed journey but I promise to blog next Monday about it because there are some new things to share!

Instead I figured why not offer a FREEBIE instead :) It's September, fall is fast approaching (seriously how is time flying by ?!?!). September makes me think of apples, and cider and apple doughnuts...YUM. I thought apples would be a nice freebie theme. And since I have 3 shops with 3 different products, it makes sense to have THREE FREEBIES!!!

So what does that mean for you, it means every month there will be lots of products and FREEBIES from members of the Etsy Digital Designers team just for you...and better yet they will all coordinate color wise!!

(if you aren't already just 'like' my page for this FREEBIE and others)

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Here are the other AWESOME items from my fellow designers. Click on the links to be taken to the FREEBIES or items for purchase!! Like and Share this post! We would love to see what you guys create using our products!!